Album Review – "Spaceship Knifefight" by Marx Revolution
This album blasts out of the gate with a short but aggro song called “Aderol” that is total metal, which caught me by surprise, even though the band describes themselves as “…essentially a ska band with very heavy punk and metal influence.” From there, the album slides into a more extreme ska-core sound, featuring songs that are very fast and very punk/metal, with only brief infusions of ska guitar, and sprinklings of horn lines throughout.
According to alto sax player Aaron, the album was self-recorded at a studio on the campus of the University of New Haven. While I do commend the band for taking on such a project themselves, I would suggest that they re-visit some of the tracks, and possibly get some outside help re-mixing it. On many of the songs, I get the feeling that the overall “listenability” would be helped by tweaking the mix. This can make a big difference between having an album that grows weary after a couple of listens, and an album that you will want to listen to over and over again. In addition, the horns often sound out of tune. Playing horns on top of this style of music is a challenge, but you have to start with good tuning or it just sounds sloppy.
The guitar work is strongest when the band is playing its heavier, chunkier stuff, and the guitar, bass and drums do sound fairly tight together.
A bright spot on the album is the title track, which is a slower, reggae song featuring a flange-heavy guitar.
Overall, not a horrible effort considering its a first album and entirely DIY, but the album suffers from some awkwardness brought on both by the production value, and possibly from a group of musicians that is still working to find its true sound.
You can check out Marx Revolution online at www.myspace.com/marxrevolution.
